Set in the summer of 1866, a year after the Civil War has ended, That Bright Land is the story of Jacob Ballard, a former Union soldier and spy who’s been sent south into the North Carolina mountains to find a serial killer who is carrying out his own private war in an isolated community.
Terry Roberts’ direct ancestors have lived in the mountains of Western North Carolina since the time of the Revolutionary War. Steven Roberts, during the early 1900’s, was the proprietor of the Mountain Park Hotel in the town of Hot Springs in Madison County, North Carolina. Julius and Belva Anderson Roberts lived and farmed near Hot Springs in Anderson Cove. Born in Asheville and raised in Weaverville, North Carolina, Roberts is the Director of the National Paideia Center and lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his family.